Thaddeus howze

Author | Futurist | Technologist | Activist

Thaddeus Howze is an award-winning writer, editor, and podcaster crafting speculative fiction, scientific, political, and cultural commentary from his office in Hayward, California. In 2023, he worked as a consultant, video game writer, and loremaster at DJ2 Entertainment in association with Genvid Technologies. His work as a consultant on the MILE team for Silent Hill: Ascension contributed to Genvid’s Emmy Award for Outstanding Innovation In Emerging Media Programming in 2024.An author, editor, and futurist, Thaddeus explores the intersections of activism, technology, and human resilience. He’s the author of Hayward's Reach and Broken Glass, and hosts Climate Change by the Elements, unraveling the impacts of global transformation. As a journalist for SCIFI.radio, Thaddeus brings the future of speculative fiction into focus while questioning the present to imagine better futures.WRITER, CREATOR, ADVOCATEThaddeus' speculative fiction has appeared in numerous anthologies and literary journals. He has published two books, 'Hayward's Reach' (2011), a collection of short stories and 'Broken Glass' (2013) an urban fantasy novella starring his favorite paranormal investigator, Clifford Engram. He is also the creator of the non-fiction, writing education series of articles called Writing Craft: Mastering the Urge to Write.Thaddeus works as a writer and editor for two online publications: The Good Men Project, a men's magazine challenging and expanding social norms for men in modern society. Working with the Good Men Project for over a decade, he specialized his coverage weekly as their environmental journalist and podcaster. His podcast, Climate Change by the Elements enters its sixth year this October.He also writes for Scifi.radio, a media station and online magazine, writing articles on popular culture, science, technology and when no one is looking, superheroes. He has also appeared in numerous publications including Black Enterprise, Gizmodo, Huffington Post, Polygon, Panel and Frame and the BBC.Thaddeus supports nurturing the next generation of creatives in a number of endeavors: He has been the Vice President of the California Writers Club, focusing on writing advocacy and support for new talent. He is one of the founding members of the Afrosurreal Writers Workshop in Oakland promoting Afro-futurism and Afro-surrealism as evolving genres of speculative fiction. He was also a Teaching Fellow at Chapter 510: Department of Make Believe (2019-2020) teaching young writers how to create spectacular speculative fiction.CIO AT-LARGE, TECHNOLOGY SPECIALIST — LINKEDINBefore his career as a journalist, Thaddeus was a technology executive who worked in the Bay Area as the Chief Information Officer and Vice President of Information Services for John F. Kennedy University. He was the technology manager and an adjunct instructor of the Computer Science department at Laney College, teaching computer science to a new generation of young minds eager to participate in ever-evolving computer technology industry.Thaddeus' career in information technology spanned two decades and included network design, technology installations, developing desktop publishing standards, educational curriculum design and industry-related coaching.THE ANSWER-MAN: SUBJECT MATTER EXPERTIn his identity as The Answer-Man he answers questions on Quora and the Science Fiction and Fantasy Stack Exchange about technology, climate science, science fiction, media culture, movies, anime, comics and superheroes all over the Internet.He has appeared on a variety of podcasts and convention panels as a comic historian and inspirational writing coach promoting Afrofuturism and speculative fiction writing.

Author

Publications
Hayward's Reach (Collection, 2011)
Broken Glass (Novella, 2013)Anthologies
The Future is Short III (2016)
Visions: Moons of Saturn (2015)
The Future is Short II (2015)
Au Courant Press Journal (2014)
Awesome AllShorts (2014)
Visions of Leaving Earth (2014)
Scifi Ideas (2014)
The Future is Short (2014)
Mothership, (2014)
Scraps (2013)
Genesis Science Fiction, (2013)
Possibilities (2012)

Writer | Editor

THE GOOD MEN PROJECT
Editor (2017 - 2019)
Writer (2011 - 2019)As a writer for the Good Men Project for eight years, Thaddeus has written across a wide array of interests including our relationships with technology, its social effects on our culture and behavior as well as considerations for how to live better with our technological developments.He has also addressed cultural issues such racism, human trafficking, corporate malfeasance, controversial judicial rulings and other social justice commentary.PODCAST (Host, Producer)
Climate Change by the Elements is a climate change focused podcast whose goal is to help listeners better understand the nature of climate transformation, the varied ways it effects the world, its economies, and the people challenged by its aftermath. The podcast focuses on how we can do our part to mitigate those challenges by more responsible uses of technology, marshalling social forces, and responsible climate advocacy.3 times monthly, 1 hour episodes, six years running (2017-2023)

Writer | Editor

Scifi.radio: Editor (2017 - 2023)
Scifi.radio: Writer (2016 - 2023)Writing as The Answer-Man he answers questions on comic-related themes, deconstructs media trends, discusses new technology, talks about video games, his favorite comics and media creators, and speculative media.He reviews his favorite controversial television, movies, science fiction and cultural commentary around enthusiast cultures such as first person shooters, anime and roleplaying games.

Writer

QUORA.COM, THADDEUS HOWZEQuora is a popular question-and-answer site Thaddeus has been writing with for nearly a decade. With nearly a thousand essays, he is considered a renaissance writer, covering an array of topics from cosmology to social justice.He and his work has been recognized on Quora as Quoran of the Month and the second place winner of Quoran of the Year (2016). He has also won Quora's coveted Top Writer award three years in a row.Quora's Top Writer Award 2016
Quora's Top Writer Award 2017
Quora's Top Writer Award 2018Site Activity 2014 - 2023
24.4 million unique views
100,000 monthly views (average)805 Essays: Topics include, comics, comic industry, history, cosmology, technology, science, politics, pet care, relationships, science fiction, creative writing, productivity, and writing craft.Essays Published in Huffington Post (3x), Gizmodo, and Polygon

Writer | editor

Editor (2016 - 2017)
Writer (2015 - 2017)
Co-Founder with Gehazi BispoFeatured Stories
One Electron Universe
The Black Terror Rides Again

Writer | moderator

SCI-FI AND FANTASY STACK EXCHANGEAWARDS
TIME Online | Top 50 websites
Top Ranked #2 Reputation - 2 years
Top Ranked #3 Reputation - 2 yearsModerator (2016 - Present)
Writer (2011 - Present)Site Activity: 2011 - Present
18.0 million unique views1,540 Essays: Comics, Cosmology, Science, Science Fiction, Analysis

Author | Journalist

Writer (2014 - Present)Published in:
Basic Income, Coffeelicious, Arc Digital, Be Epic, Blacks in Technology, Hacker Noon, Panel & Frame, The Creative Cafe, Startup Grind, The Creator's Path, The Mission, The Writing Cooperative, The Mission, Happiness WeeklyFeatured Non-Fiction Articles
Say Reverse Racism
Feudalism & the Algorithmic EconomyFeatured Fiction
Death and Life - In a Place of Novas370 Short stories, essays, reviews, political and social commentaries

ONLINE PUBLICATIONS

A collection of my essays written on Quora discussing alien civilizations, abstract beings and the cosmic powers of the Marvel and DC Universes.

conventions, lectures, speaking & engagements 2017

BAYCON 2017 (SCIENCE FICTION CONVENTION)

Autism and Asperger's In Fandom
Saturday 11:30 - 13:00, Synergy 5 (San Mateo Marriott)Panelists on the spectrum discuss their experiences dealing with autism and other spectrum-related disorders in fandom.Fr John Blaker, Thaddeus Howze (M), Jonathan Fortin, Kathleen Bartholomew, ElizaBeth Gilligan

Stealing From The Best
Saturday 13:00 - 14:30, Connect 5 (San Mateo Marriott)So many of our books, movies & TV shows had their inception as other stories. Forbidden Planet started out as Shakespeare's The Tempest, Once Upon A Time and Grimm are composites of other fairy tales. What works and why?S. P. Hendrick (M), Helen Stringer, Thaddeus Howze, M Christian, Jay Hartlove

Escape Velocity
Sunday 13:00 - 14:30, Inspire 1 (San Mateo Marriott)Whether it’s the Enterprise exploring new realms now that the Earth is in balance or the corporate plundering of Weyland-Yutani, most science fiction sees the future of the human race on planets beside earth. Panelists will discuss both the fictional and scientific possibilities in space colonization.Colin Fisk (M), Thaddeus Howze, G. David Nordley, Cliff Winnig

The Drake Equation & The Fermi Paradox
Sunday 14:30 - 16:00, Synergy 4 (San Mateo Marriott)There are two primary schools of thought on alien civilizations from the Human perspective.ONE: We are alone in the Universe and there is no other forms of life able to be detected at this time. Given the number of galaxies and the number of stars in each galaxy (100 billion galaxies each with 10 billion to 1 trillion stars each) it seems quite a bit of space for only one species to come into awareness of itself and the vastness of the Universe.TWO: Space is teeming with life and we just haven't found any trace of it yet. Why? Are they hiding? Is becoming a space-faring civilization harder than we think it is? What are the Great Barriers to a civilization becoming capable of taking over a galaxy? Is the galaxy being taking over right now by an alien super-intelligence?What happens if we meet an alien species whose capacities are significantly greater than our own? When one Human group met another with more advanced technologies, bad things tended to happen. Is this happening on a galactic level?Or is there something else? We will explore the ideas of the Drake Equation and the Fermi Paradox in this session.G. David Nordley (M), Dr Burcu Umurhan, Thaddeus Howze, Vanessa MacLaren-Wray

museum of science fiction: escape velocity 2017

Literary Representations of AI and RoboticsScholars will discuss the role of artificial intelligence and robotics in science and speculative fiction literatures.They will address questions such as: Why do so many texts depict the dangers of AI? Why are we so afraid of our creations gaining sentience and turning against us? What do we stand to lose? To gain?Why does organic humanity need to be the only rational consciousness? And how closely do these texts mirror the reality of today's tech?

Utopia vs. DystopiaScholars discuss the portrayal of utopian (and dystopian) futures in science fiction writings: What are some of the common themes? Have these portrayals changed with time? What are the odds we are heading towards these futures (or trying to move away from them)?

Man as Machine: Androids and Cyborgs in LiteratureAre humans more than the sum of their parts, or are they merely organic machines, as philosophers from antiquity on have suggested?Today, new innovations in science and technology provide new ways to interrogate this question, even as they continue to raise it. On the one hand, increasingly advanced prosthetics, neural interfaces (such as Elon Musk’s recently-announced Neuralink), and other enhancements allow us to go beyond the limitations of our human bodies.On the other hand, machine intelligence now rivals, and even supersedes, humans in everything from game-playing strategies to driving and facial recognition, suggesting that we’re moving closer to the holy grail of creating an artificial sentient being. These innovations pose the ultimate question: what does it mean to be human? More specifically, (how) do our physical bodies define us and shape our humanity, and how might we retain that humanity as we change, or even transcend, those bodies?

Afrofuturism: Butler and BeyondAfrofuturism can be characterized as an artistic movement - one that attempts to discover, recover, and reinvent the film, literature, and graphic art created by African-Americans and other Afro-diaspora peoples across the globe.Most fundamentally, literary Afrofuturism attempts to imagine a future in which black peoples and cultures have found a voice and gained visibility alongside or apart from traditional Eurocentric themes and traditions, which both respects the legacy of African-American and Afro-diaspora peoples and attempts to break free of the stereotypes and historical injustices that define so much of modern race-related thinking.This marriage of African-American literature and SF yields interesting discourses on race, gender, technology, and the face of the future. Scholars will discuss Afrofuturist literature, its legacy, its ethos, and its most pressing questions.

I, the Alien; or the Alien as SelfSci-fi narratives are often seen as an excellent place to explore foreign entities and species. It is also a unique tool to explain the alien as self. This panel will explore the usage of alien narratives to represent the alienated self as a representation of people who have been pushed aside, ignored, or rendered invisible.This panel asks: How do sci-fi narratives give voice to populations and individuals who are seen as alien or other?